Twitter Makes You a Better Writer?

According to a post from the CopyBlogger blog on copywriting for marketers, twitter (a social media tool that only allows you to write 140 characters per post) makes you a better writer.

The author of the blog post, Jennifer Blanchard, writes:

What all of this means is, you have to be concise. You have to know exactly what you want to say, and say it in as few words as possible.

Many writers, however, are “wordy” and often have long, drawn out descriptions and sentences, so it can be pretty difficult to create a message that’s only 140 characters.

In addition to forcing you to be concise, twitter also forces you to exercise your vocabulary and improve your editing skills, says Blanchard. I admit that I never thought of twitter as a means of improving one’s copywriting skills, but she makes a point.

Awhile ago, I learned that really good writers don’t need to write long, drawn-out descriptions in order to communicate their message. Truly great writers cut out all superfluous “fluff” and stick to the meat of what they’re trying to say. They don’t use nice-sounding big words if they don’t have to; if they do use complex verbiage, they only do so in order to deepen the reader’s experience.

If you can get into the habit of cutting out extra stuff, appropriately utilizing good vocabulary, and self-editing, you’ll become a better writer, with or without twitter (preferably with).

Thanks, Dave. Good call on twitter’s limitations in making you a better writer. You’re right. I think this advice is only relevant to those who are willing to apply it. For many, twitter makes you a sloppier writer (in order to be pragmatic).